1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sliding roof device, and more particularly to a sliding roof device for opening and closing an opening of a vehicle roof.
2. Description of the Related Arts
A sliding roof for vehicles is generally shown in FIG. 6, wherein a pair of guide rails 6, 6 are provided in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. An opening 2 is provided in a roof 1 of the vehicle and a slide panel 3, generally formed by a transparent material such as a glass, is slidably disposed in the opening 2 to open or close the opening 2 of the roof 1 by the slidable movement along the guide rails 6, 6. Numerals 4, 4 designate slide elements and numerals 5, 5 designate shoes. These shoes and slide elements are connected to the slide panel 3 through cables (not shown) and slidably guided in the guide rails 6, 6. Numeral 7 designates an actuator, such as an electric motor, for driving the cables. Numerals 9, 9 designate rain gutters for discharging rain therein to the outside of the vehicle through pipes 8, 8.
The rain gutter and the guide rail structure of a conventional type is shown in FIG. 7, which corresponds to the Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-35005(1986). In this prior art, an aluminum-based alloy guide rail 6 is secured to a housing 9 made of resin which has a rain gutter portion 10 having a U-shaped cross section next to the guide rail 6.
Another conventional type of a guide rail structure is shown in FIG. 8, which corresponds to the Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 3-227(1991). In this prior art, an extension is formed integrally with the guide rail 6 to form a U-shaped rain gutter 10 in cross section. The free end of the extension is secured to a housing portion 9 at the point 11 to fixedly secure the guide rail 6 to the vehicle body (not shown). Since the extension is formed integrally with the guide rail 6, the vertical thickness of the structure is relatively small compared to that shown in FIG. 7. In other words, the vertical thickness (t) in FIG. 7 is not necessary for the type shown in FIG. 8. This is important because a vehicle having a sliding roof device has to have some limited space under the roof to accomodate parts of sliding roof device. In a limited space of the compartment of a vehicle, such space as required for mounting the sliding roof device has to be small as possible. The conventional type shown in FIG. 8 may obviate disadvantages of the type shown in FIG. 7, but may have another disadvantage that the forming of the U-shaped gutter portion 10 by a bending process is difficult due to possible shape change at the bent portion after the hot extrusion process of aluminum alloy guide rail. This will, in turn, lead to difficulties in securing the flange portion 11 to the housing 9. Further, during the bending process, corner portions shown in FIG. 6 as "A" may shrink and conventionally to avoid such disadvantages, such corner portions A are cut after the bending process and replaced with corner pieces prepared separately. This requires another step for manufacturing the guide rails.